As someone who has actively used student loans to help finance my own undergraduate and graduate degrees along with my husband’s law degree, I have seen the benefits of taking on student debt to achieve specific goals firsthand. My husband is a practicing attorney and I have been steadily employed in the financial services industry ever since I graduated. Neither of those statements would be true without our degrees.

Recently, there have been a number of news stories highlighting the fact that high school students today are either completely averse to student loans or plan on borrowing only a very minimal amount. So what’s the problem with this financial mindset among young adults?

According to a TIME Money article, “The drawback to this wariness is that for those who do not borrow, they are unlikely to get four-year degrees.” The reasons cited in the article include: families not saving enough and the fact that working your way through school or starting at a community college to save money significantly decrease your chances of graduating with a four-year degree.